What I say unto you I say unto all, watch. Mark 13:37

July 15, 2011

6 in 10 Palestinians reject 2-state solution, survey finds

Only one in three Palestinians (34 percent) accepts two
states for two peoples as the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
according to an intensive, face-to-face survey in Arabic of 1,010 Palestinian
adults in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip completed this week by American
pollster Stanley Greenberg.

The poll, which has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage
points, was conducted in partnership with the Beit Sahour-based Palestinian
Center for Public Opinion and sponsored by the Israel Project, an international
nonprofit organization that provides journalists and leaders with information
about the Middle East.

The Israel Project is trying to reach out to the Arab world
to promote “people-to-people peace.” The poll appears to indicate that the
organization has a difficult task ahead.

Respondents were asked about US President Barack Obama’s
statement that “there should be two states: Palestine as the homeland for the
Palestinian people and Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people.”

Just 34% said they accepted that concept, while 61% rejected
it.

Sixty-six percent said the Palestinians’ real goal should be
to start with a two-state solution but then move to it all being one Palestinian
state.

Asked about the fate of Jerusalem, 92% said it should be the
capital of Palestine, 1% said the capital of Israel, 3% the capital of both, and
4% a neutral international city.

Seventy-two percent backed denying the thousands of years of
Jewish history in Jerusalem, 62% supported kidnapping IDF soldiers and holding
them hostage, and 53% were in favor or teaching songs about hating Jews in
Palestinian schools.

When given a quote from the Hamas Charter about the need for
battalions from the Arab and Islamic world to defeat the Jews, 80% agreed.
Seventy-three percent agreed with a quote from the charter (and a hadith, or
tradition ascribed to the prophet Muhammad) about the need to kill Jews hiding
behind stones and trees.

But only 45% said they believed in the charter’s statement
that the only solution to the Palestinian problem was jihad.

The survey’s more positive findings included that only 22%
supported firing rockets at Israeli cities and citizens and that two-thirds
preferred diplomatic engagement over violent “resistance.”

Among Palestinians in general 65% preferred talks and 20%
violence. In the West Bank it was 69-28%, and in Gaza, 59- 32%.

Asked whether they backed seeking a Palestinian state
unilaterally in the UN, 64% said yes. The number was 57% in the West Bank and
79% in Gaza. Thirty-seven percent said the UN action would bring a Palestinian
state closer, 16% said it would set back the establishment of a state, and 44%
said it would make no difference.

When asked what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas’s top priorities should be, 83% said creating jobs. Just 4% said getting
the UN to recognize a Palestinian state, and only 2% said peace talks with
Israel.

Israel Project president Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi said she was
encouraged that the Arab Spring would bring more accuracy to Arab media and by
the 59% of Palestinians who are on Facebook. The Israel Project has 80,723
friends for its Arabic site, which has had 9.5 million page views in two months.

“Some of the numbers in the poll are discouraging, but we are
trying to change them,” she said at a Jerusalem press conference in which
Greenberg presented the findings.

Greenberg said the survey proved that there was a big need
for public education and leadership on the Palestinian side.